Global Democracy and the World Social Forums by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, General
ISBN: 9781317264842
Google: j2vvCgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2015-11-17T09:36:38+00:00

Free Software and Creative Commons

Finally, another important component of creating truly autonomous media systems is the defense of the knowledge commons and protection of access to technology. Since the 2004 WSF, organizers have made a concerted effort to use free and open source software on all forum-related computer networks (Caruso 2005; Juris 2008a; Juris et al. 2013; Smith and Smythe 2009). Free software is nonproprietary and based on open source development principles, where computer programmers improve and distribute new versions of software code through collaborative networks. Free software thus requires the right to distribute and access source code, posing a challenge to corporate software monopolies, such as Microsoft. The 2005 WSF in Porto Alegre ran free software on all 1,000 computers and shifted the official website to an open source language, while the 2005 IYC also ran free software on all computer systems (Milan 2005).

Free software is a specific example of a more general legal principle and license called copyleft, which explicitly states that any person can use, modify, and redistribute written documents and computer software, as well as works of art and music. Although many free software activists consider themselves apolitical, many radical activists view free software and copyleft as a major challenge to the intellectual property rights regime on which the current global capitalist order depends, establishing the basis for an alternative political and economic system (Juris et al. 2013). Numerous workshops were organized around free software and the creative commons during the 2005 IYC, particularly in the Laboratory of Free Knowledge Zone, as well as the official forum within a World Social Territory dedicated to "Autonomous Thought, Reappropriation and Socialization of Knowledge and Technologies."

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